30

They knew. Those were the words running through my head over and over, even as Aenah stepped past us toward King Vanor. They knew we were coming to the crypts, and they had planned for it. There were wards around the royal tombs, which were dormant until Aenah had activated them. Now her compulsion was strong enough to batter our defenses.

Frantic, I sought out the azi still on a rampage around the city. For a moment, its thoughts touched mine—only to be wrenched away as Aenah severed our connection.

“No, little lady. We wouldn’t want that.”

I had lost my hold on King Vanor, but he remained upright, no doubt now under Aenah’s influence. His eyes stared unseeingly at the wall before him, paying the Faceless and his brother no attention.

“Father?” Khalad quavered.

“Surprised?” Aenah asked, smiling. She bent down and slipped the protection stone off my neck. “You should thank Lady Mykaela. It was she who told Telemaine that you were skulking about the catacombs, hoping he would station a guard there. As you can see, Telemaine took Mykaela’s advice to heart. And doing so has gone better than expected, my Tea. Usij was an eyesore. I had hoped to imbue you with runes and point you in his direction so I would have one less rival for shadowglass, whichever of you won. You have performed your task admirably.”

“A liar, as always,” I hissed.

“I spoke no lie. My offer to join our cause was genuine. You have always been a true child of the Dark, Tea. I knew it the instant our minds first touched.”

“There’s no time for conversation, my love,” the king said. “Prepare what you need.”

I watched Aenah as she moved around the tomb, ignoring Vanor. The runes she traced in the air were unknown to me. She smiled as she caught my eye. “Did you really think I would show you every rune I know, Tea? A shame really. We could have worked well together.”

“You were imprisoned!” I had felt her distress at her warded cell, and it had been unfeigned.

“It was necessary to be imprisoned, to keep me uncomfortable and pliant to your coercion whenever you visited Odalia. Telemaine more than made up for it whenever you left the city.”

“Did you silence Vanor with one such spell?”

She laughed. “There are spells that can seal his mouth, even without compelling him. You should know, Tea. It was one of the runes I used on you while you were a novice.”

“How could you, Telemaine?” Polaire raged. “How could you be in league with that Faceless witch?”

“Why shouldn’t I, Polaire?” Gone was the hearty attitude, the pretense of concern and compassion. The king’s eyes glittered against the firelight, cold and calculating. “It was I who had Vanor killed, Polaire. I have been with Aenah for many years, long before you were an asha.”

“Vanor was your brother!” Polaire protested.

“Forget it, Polaire,” Kalen groused. “The king had no qualms about using my father as his scapegoat. But I now understand why he revolted against you.”

“Ah, yes. Lance had always been smarter than Vanor but not by much. I’m glad I kept him alive all these years. Vanor was weak willed and spineless, more concerned at playing house with a bone witch, while other kingdoms slowly outstripped Odalia in power and influence. You may not think it, Polaire, but I am as much a patriot as you think you are. Our kingdom suffered at the hands of Vanor. Our army was in disrepair, and what did he do? Pin all our hopes and riches on some poor little village because it had an inferior runeberry patch. Daanoris encroaches on Arhen-Kosho’s coastal territories, and he offers them a trade agreement! By the time he was done, Odalia would’ve been nothing more than a vassal kingdom, robbed of its status and power and at the mercy of Daanoris, Kion, or the Yadosha city-states. Vanor’s death was a blessing, Polaire. I merely sped up what nature was too slow to accomplish.”

Zoya wriggled slightly, attracting my eye before casting her gaze upward at the wards around us. Her fingers twitched.

“You’re not telling us everything,” I said. “Wresting the kingdom away from your brother was only one reason you killed King Vanor. You might not have shown me every rune you know, Aenah, but you should not have provided me with the blueprint to create heartsglass, even if you thought immortality would appeal to me. You didn’t only need a silver heartsglass. You needed the most powerful one you could find for the best potency. But Vanor learned of your schemes and disrupted your plans by hiding Mykaela’s heartsglass. You know where it is, but none of your runes can give you access.”

“You have always been very perceptive, Tea.”

“You might have sealed his tongue, but you cannot seal his intentions,” I declared.

“And that is why I keep your Heartforger alive. Did you know they are capable of taking heartsglass without permission?”

I snapped my head toward Khalad in amazement. He flinched.

“Yes, it is part of the Heartforger’s oath—to refuse those who are not willing. That is why so few people meet the qualifications for forging. This is their true trade secret, for fear others may take advantage of them. But seeing his friends tortured might give Khalad better motivation. Perhaps you would like to offer your own heartsglass in Mykaela’s stead?” Aenah clapped her hands in delight. “We shall make it a contest. The first to give up their silver heartsglass shall be put out of their misery quickly, and the others will be left to torment.”

“But Prince Kance!” I tried to lift myself off the ground, but it felt like a heavy rock sat on my chest. “Prince Kance is innocent! His own son!”

“Ah, Kance,” Aenah sighed. “We had no choice with Kance. He was one of only two from Anahita’s lineage to satisfy our requirements for shadowglass, and we could not spare the young Heartforger should old Narel die.”

“Did you really think I would put Kance in any danger?” Telemaine asked scornfully. “Aenah took his soul and kept it safely hidden, knowing that Usij might strike him next. She merely planted a suggestion of Daanoris about his heartsglass in the hopes you would rise to the bait.”

The Faceless woman giggled. “And Princess Yansheo has made a miraculous recovery. If Khalad works with us, then perhaps Kance too shall recover. Kance would be understandably grief stricken to discover that many of his friends have been put to death for treason while he was asleep…such as his uncle, the Duke of Holsrath.”

A sound of both rage and agony fractured from Kalen’s mouth.

“He was not in the best of health, and the added compulsion broke him. Fortunately, his role in this matter had already been completed.”

A sudden spurt of laughter broke the silence. To my shock, it came from Khalad, his body shaking where he lay. “I wondered why you’d ignored me all these years, Father, only to start inquiring about me in these last few months. You needed me to forge this heartsglass. Does that still make me the royal disappointment?”

“Nonsense, Khalad,” Telemaine snapped.

“Nonsense?” With a grunt, Khalad flipped onto his stomach. “You said I was a worthless heir, incapable of giving you grandchildren because of my ‘unnatural proclivities.’ You banned me from functions and put Kance in the spotlight long before my heart turned silver. And when it did, you turned me over to the Heartforger and said I was no longer your son. Is that what you call ‘nonsense’ nowadays, Father?” His lip curled. “I thought you’d changed the last couple of months, and, fool as I was, it gave me hope. But I watched Kance support Likh’s appeal to become an asha, and you didn’t. How could you when you’d rejected your own son for those same unnatural proclivities?”

Khalad was resisting the spell, struggling to his feet. “You couldn’t even pretend. Couldn’t announce to the people why you refused to champion Likh’s bid when you couldn’t look at me without disgust. So instead, you took the opportunity to make it all about Kance and his engagement. That was why my brother was in such a state afterward—he’d realized your aim. I could see it all over your heartsglass: how dare this catamite upstart demand this from my obedient, normal son—”

Telemaine hit Khalad across the face, and he went down. “I would beat your proclivities out of you if I could,” the king said, seething.

Khalad choked on blood but laughed. “But you can’t, can you? You could bend Kance to your whims, but you could never do the same to me.”

“In the interests of scientific curiosity,” Althy said calmly, “what exactly are you intending to do here?”

“Make shadowglass, of course.” Aenah smiled. “Our forger here has done the impossible, replicating what we need.” She smiled at King Telemaine. “We will be immortal, he and I, and Odalia shall prosper under our rule.”

Fox’s gaze met mine. Kalen was close beside me, and I wriggled as best as I could until my feet brushed against his shin.

“Wait,” I spoke up. “Leave them alone and I’ll give my heartsglass freely.”

“Tea!” Zoya shouted behind me.

“How nauseatingly noble. Come here, Tea.”

Unwillingly, my body rose. Aenah laid a hand on my heartsglass.

“Such a waste, Tea. If events had gone differently, you could have been standing beside me.”

“I would rather stand with daeva.”

“Falling on misplaced courage now? You no longer control the azi, Tea. Daeva have no true master.”

The ground around us heaved, caught in the throes of a sudden earthquake. It knocked both Aenah and King Telemaine off their feet, and Aenah’s control wavered.

Fox and Khalad leaped forward, the latter plunging his hand straight into King Vanor’s chest. The roof above tore open. The azi gazed down at us, purring, and its strength sang through me.

“Impossible!” Aenah shrieked. “You do not control it! Why is it defending—”

I linked my will to Zoya’s, funneling as much of the magic as I could through her. The asha grunted, and I felt the wards unravel as she dissolved Aenah’s barrier.

Kalen’s sword slid out of his scabbard, runes flashing through the air. Fire streamed toward the Faceless, but she evaded it. Telemaine drew his own heavy sword, countering Kalen’s blow.

“Is this what it has come down to, Kalen?” the king said, taunting him. “Do you now raise your hand against me, as your father did?”

“You betrayed us!” Kalen shouted.

Telemaine swung again, and Kalen’s blade shattered. The Deathseeker retreated, and I saw faint cuts on his face and arms where the sword’s fragments had sliced him. “Common steel versus royal metal. This is no contest, boy.”

“Don’t underestimate me, Uncle.” Kalen sidestepped the next attack and lashed out with a leg sweep. The king stumbled, and Kalen rose to strike him on the arm, sending his sword sliding several feet away. Then he struck again at the center of the king’s chest, sending the burly man flat on his back. Zoya snatched up the sword, tossing it to Kalen.

“Surrender, Aenah,” Polaire said grimly, her and Althy’s runes weaving around them. “Immediately.”

“No.”

The ground shuddered again, breaking apart underneath me and lifting me off my feet. The aeshma forced itself up from the soil, screeching, only a few feet from where Mykaela, Khalad, and Vanor stood.

“Move, Khalad!” Zoya yelled.

“A few more seconds,” the forger insisted, his hand still through Vanor’s chest. The aeshma yowled, and its spikes lengthened.

Khalad ripped his hand free, and the bright light of Mykaela’s heartsglass illuminated the room. After years hidden away, its light seemed brighter than any asha’s heartsglass I had ever seen.

But the ground shuddered again, and Khalad lost his footing. The silver heartsglass landed with a thud by Vanor’s feet.

Mykaela staggered, and the aeshma attacked.

I tried to fight my way into the aeshma’s mind but couldn’t; Aenah’s hold on it was absolute. Kalen leaped forward, and I saw Polaire and Althy closing the distance to Mykaela, Shield runes forming around their friend.

King Vanor moved.

There was a sickening crunch.

Mykaela stared wordlessly at her former lover, impaled by one of the aeshma’s spikes. The royal noble’s arm reached for her, and the silver heartsglass glittered in his hands. He smiled slowly—a strange look on the otherwise expressionless face, like he was in the process of relearning how.

“Vanor,” Mykaela said softly.

He placed the heartsglass in her hands and, with a sigh, crumbled into ashes and dust, leaving only the aeshma and the spike behind. Furious at being deprived of a victim, the daeva lunged forward again.

Runes burst forth and surrounded the aeshma. The beast abandoned all attempts at assault and retreated, shrieking, as currents danced through its flesh. Mykaela stood in the center of that glowing storm, her heartsglass a beautiful display of unrepentant magic and light, scorching the walls of the tomb around her with her fury. For a few moments, the aeshma lay under her thrall, enough for it to retreat. But soon, her strength left her, and Mykaela sank down, breathing hard.

“Welcome back,” Zoya said, grabbing Mykaela. “Now let’s get out of here before we literally have no more ground to stand on!”

We made it out of the tombs just in time—before the aeshma breached the catacombs’ roof to take a swipe at the azi. The latter sent flames through the broken ceiling.

The aeshma hollered in response, a ball of spikes tumbling toward the daeva. I grabbed at the azi’s mind, registering its shock and pain as the two creatures collided. I tasted metal in my mouth as the aeshma’s spikes dug in. The azi breathed fire directly at the other beast; it detached from our hide and rolled away, its barbs black and charred.

“Assassins!” I heard King Telemaine scream at the soldiers. “Kill them!” I could hear the sounds of battle in the distance and realized that Alsron and Shadi were also attacking the city.

Althy extracted the moisture from the air, channeled Water and thick Mud into the soil surrounding the aeshma. The aeshma grunted when its spiked talons sank into the newly created quagmire. It struggled to raise itself but only managed to submerge itself deeper.

“The face is its most vulnerable,” she called out. “Concentrate your attacks there!”

The azi swung its tail spike, striking hard across the beast’s snout and tearing through flesh. The aeshma wailed in agony.

Polaire threw cutting Wind and Fire in Aenah’s direction. Earth, Air, and Water runes sprung up around Zoya, twisting themselves into a complicated knot to spew jets of acid. The Faceless called up walls of the dead even as Polaire’s corrosive magic hissed and fizzled against the corpses. Althy sent more Earth runes burrowing deep, but Aenah avoided the sinkhole, her cadavers carrying her to safer ground. “Is that all you have?” she said mockingly.

Even trapped, the aeshma was still a deadly opponent. Its spikes lengthened to twice its size, and we all had to dance out of the way when it began attacking indiscriminately. A lone spike came whizzing in my direction, but a Shield rune from Kalen kept it from slicing into me.

Very few of the soldiers had taken up Telemaine’s order, not wanting to get in between the two battling daeva. The half dozen who were courageous enough to do so were easily dispatched by Fox.

Mykaela ignored the danger, walking toward the aeshma, her face intent.

“Mykkie!” Polaire cried out. “Keep away!”

The aeshma hissed, turning its terrible gaze on the lone asha approaching it. Mykaela was close enough for the beast to swipe at her with an outstretched limb.

“Stop.” The asha raised her hand. The claw stopped in midair, as if hitting an invisible barrier. The aeshma reared back, and a quick brush against its thoughts told me it was confused, though still under Aenah’s control.

“What are you doing?” the Faceless hissed. Her willpower was extraordinary to retain her influence on the aeshma while fending off attacks by Polaire and Zoya.

I soon understood. Aenah was too firmly ingrained in the aeshma. To wrest control would take too much effort, too much time. But she was using minor spells to confuse and intimidate the daeva, which I had never thought to do before.

The aeshma hissed, runes of doubt and confusion coloring its mind. It stopped.

“Fight!” Aenah screamed.

Mykaela threw fear into its mind. It scrambled back, but the sand retained its hold. When the aeshma threw its head up and howled, exposing the fragile flesh of its underbelly, I called to the azi and we jumped.

Three rows of teeth tore into the daeva’s face and neck, the aeshma’s screams cutting off when we found its jugular. The blood flowed more earnestly, and the aeshma struggled and twitched. I fought off the urge to throw up at the thick clotting texture of it in my mouth and held on grimly until the jerking stilled and the daeva grew slack in our grip. Its limbs, no longer fighting, slid out of the quicksand with a horrific sucking sound.

Panting, pleased, I turned to smile weakly at Mykaela. I drew my knife—and drove it toward her chest.

“Tea!” Fox shoved my mentor out of the way, taking my attack through his arm. Stunned, I opened my mouth and found that I couldn’t speak. No sound came from my throat, even as my mind screamed.

“It’s quite easy to slay a beast.” Though she lost her daeva, Aenah was triumphant, having nailed a better prize. She clutched my protection stone in one hand. It glowed. “Can you do the same with your precious bone witch, Mykaela?”

“Let her go, Aenah.”

I set my own knife against my throat, feeling the sharpness against my skin.

“Not quite yet,” the Faceless purred, and the pressure against my neck increased. “Attempt to get inside my head, Mykaela, and I shall slit your precious ward’s throat.”

I could feel Aenah increasing her hold, using me as a gateway into the azi, who was already struggling, alarmed, as my thoughts crumbled away. I could feel its fear as the strings between us unraveled.

“Tea,” Kalen said quietly. The Heartshare rune spun on his hand; he had always been a quick study.

He released the spell, and I felt it fill me up. The knife dropped from my hand, and Aenah’s gloating expression changed to one of consternation as she clawed at my thoughts but found nothing as Kalen stole me away from her reach. Come to me, I heard, and then I was running, throwing myself into his arms.

That brief second was all it took. In her desperation, knowing that the tide of battle had turned against her, Aenah lashed out at the one other mind she still had control over. The azi screeched in pain, its three heads weaving in agony as the Faceless all but tore into its thoughts, brutal in her quest for dominance. The daeva thrashed wildly, and its tail lifted, the deadly spike whipping through the air straight at Mykaela.

One second was all it took. One second for Polaire’s Shield runes to flicker to life, one second too late for Mykaela to delve into the azi’s mind to pacify its rage. One second for Aenah to beat her there, the azi’s thoughts disappearing into darkness, away from mine.

The daeva’s tail pierced through Polaire’s shield. Trembling, the dark-haired asha’s spell wavered and disappeared, leaving her stock-still, eyes wide in surprise, as blood spread through the front of her shirt where the spike had torn through.

“No!” Mykaela sank to her knees as Polaire toppled, catching her best friend before she could hit the ground. Althy ran to them, heedless of the still-writhing azi. Under Kalen’s control, I watched in dazed disbelief as the healer fell to her knees beside the unmoving Polaire, Mykaela’s hands over the wound to staunch the flowing blood.

Aenah was panting, the exertion of controlling the azi sapping her strength, though she began to smile. Telemaine had snatched an underling’s sword and held it against Khalad’s throat, a warning not to intervene.

“So much for the vaunted…Polaire…” Aenah wheezed, still drunk on power.

“Tea,” Fox whispered.

But I was moving, my mind working from someplace far away, my thoughts scattered into the void. It was a sensation not unfamiliar to me from back when I had taken in darkrot at Daanoris and watched Usij die. But this felt different; I was quiet, filled with the cold detachment of fury and a horrible eagerness. Althy looked back at us, her own face tearstained, and slowly shook her head.

And then I could hear the sound of my mind snapping.